Media – CatholicVote.orghttps://www.catholicvote.org
The mission of CatholicVote.org is to educate and inspire Americans of all faiths to prioritize the issues of life, faith, and family.Tue, 20 Mar 2018 02:09:37 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.2The Catholic Vote Radio Hour is a program where the dogma lives loudly.CatholicVote.orgcleanepisodicCatholicVote.orgmercer@catholicvote.orgmercer@catholicvote.org (CatholicVote.org)No mules were harmed in the making of this episodeMedia – CatholicVote.orghttp://catholicvote.org/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/cv-podcast-469.pnghttps://www.catholicvote.org/category/media-2/
mercer@catholicvote.orgThe Catholic Vote Radio Hour is a program where the dogma lives loudly. Listen to Your Heart, Not Hollywood: A Lesson From Kylie Jennerhttps://www.catholicvote.org/listen-to-your-heart-not-hollywood-a-lesson-from-kylie-jenner/
https://www.catholicvote.org/listen-to-your-heart-not-hollywood-a-lesson-from-kylie-jenner/#respondFri, 16 Mar 2018 21:07:20 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=17042If you’re looking for further proof that right morality is written on the heart of every person, look no further than Kylie Jenner.

Last fall, celebrity news outlets buzzed with rumors that Jenner, of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” fame, was pregnant with rapper boyfriend Travis Scott’s child. Since the news of Kylie’s pregnancy broke, the reality TV star-turned-makeup maven-turned mother has found herself at the center of a much-needed conversation surrounding Hollywood’s radical abortion politics.

Like most people, Kylie Jenner probably never thought too deeply about her personal views on life, pregnancy, or abortion until these issues affected her directly. While fans and tabloids voiced their support and disapproval of her decision to keep her child, the 20-year-old kept fairly quiet during the months leading up to her daughter Stormi’s birth in February.

Since then, however, the young mom has shed a very pro-life light on her pregnancy and birth experience. Earlier this week, Jenner engaged fans on Twitter, answering some of their questions about the life-changing event she’d successfully kept secret for so long. The new mom shared a number of previously unknown details, from who she told first, to pregnancy cravings, to the birthing process itself.

“Were you afraid of giving birth?” one Twitter user asked. “I’m just a year older than you and this is my number 1 fear about having a baby.”

“I wasn’t afraid! & you shouldn’t be either,” Jenner replied. “We were made for this.”

This wasn’t the first time Jenner has spoken out about life with Stormi. Days after her daughter’s February 1 birth, she penned a note to her fans, explaining why she chose to keep this major season of her life private. In the note, she describes having a child as “the most beautiful, empowering, and life changing experience” she ever had.

“I’ve never felt love and happiness like this,” she wrote. “I could burst.”

Around the same time, Jenner posted a video titled, “To Our Daughter,” on her YouTube account. The 11-minute video, narrated by Jenner’s friends, begins with footage from the day Jenner was born and goes on to document her own pregnancy. It includes clips from her 15-week ultrasound, where Jenner and Scott counted their daughter’s toes and listened to her heartbeat.

The video is unmistakably pro-life:

While other members of the Kardashian clan have voiced their support for Planned Parenthood, Kylie’s actions and comments surrounding the birth of Stormi stand in bold, beautiful contrast to Hollywood norms. Such actions haven’t gone unnoticed, or unpunished.

Back in September, when the rumors of Jenner’s pregnancy began to surface, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton infamously suggested that the then-19-year-old abort her unborn child. Citing Jenner’s age and her family’s poor reputation when it comes to romantic relationships, Hilton reasoned that the child would be better off not being born than having Jenner as a mom.

To their credit, many pro-choice liberals agreed that the comments went too far. But Hilton’s sentiment certainly couldn’t be considered taboo; it’s perfectly consistent with the mainstream, abortion-on-demand progressivism of Hollywood elites.

The Kardashian-Jenner family has become synonymous with Hollywood standards of promiscuity, vanity, and materialism. This has gained them tremendous success and popularity, and Kylie Jenner’s story proves that breaking away from these values, even slightly, can yield nasty consequences.

Jenner’s positive take on motherhood highlights the tension between the pro-abortion camp’s “clump of cells” narrative and the reality of life’s beauty. Her story shows that you don’t have to ascribe to an explicitly conservative or Judeo-Christian worldview to bear witness and be transformed by eternal truths.

I don’t agree with most of Kylie Jenner’s life decisions, but I couldn’t be more pleased with her decision to choose life, and to listen to her own heart instead of Hollywood, despite the potential backlash.

In a day and age where columnists for nationally circulated news outlets are trying to make eugenics great again by advocating infanticide based on IQ, Jenner’s reflections on motherhood stand out as refreshingly logical, intuitive, and courageous.

The pro-life movement should embrace Kylie Jenner and anyone else who refuses to march in lock-step with a culture that is hostile to truth, love, and life.

From last year through 2018, Hollywood has not only given Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards celebrity status, but also boosted the image of America’s largest abortion provider in at least five different, though connected, ways: Food, awards shows, fashion, television shows, and social media.

These are all everyday things, but Planned Parenthood is anything but normal. According to Planned Parenthood’s most recently published annual report, the organization performed 321,384 abortions and received $543.7 million in “government health services, reimbursements & grants” for the year 2016 – 2017.

Since 1973, the year the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in this country, Planned Parenthood has committed 7.6 million abortions.

But those numbers don’t concern the entertainment industry that regularly spotlights Planned Parenthood. Here are five ways Planned Parenthood has seeped into entertainment:

Planned Parenthood in Food

On Thursday, actress and Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi convinced her fellow judges to wear Planned Parenthood pins during the 15th season finale of Bravo’s chef show. Planned Parenthood, she claimed, was essential – just like food.

“We need food for survival, we also need privacy to deal with our own bodies as we see fit,” she tweeted in defense of the decision.

“I thought it was a gentle way of just giving support,” she told Buzzfeed afterwards. The pins expressed the judges’ “point of view,” Lakshmi insisted, as she called Top Chef a “neutral show” that’s “just about good food and good quality.”

This isn’t the first time media have intertwined Planned Parenthood and food. In the past year, both People magazine and feminist Guardian columnist Jessica Valenti interviewed Richards on her pie-baking secrets so that, as Valenti said, everyone would “know this incredible woman for who she really is.”

Planned Parenthood in Awards Shows

A few days before Top Chef, on March 4, Richards walked the red carpet and agreed to interviews at the 90th Academy Awards ceremony. In a (very friendly) interview with entertainment site Popsugar, Richards ironically revealed that she placed her hope in the “next generation.” Never mind that, according to pro-life organizations like the Susan B. Anthony List, 3.8 million abortions have occurred under her watch.

But that wasn’t the end of Richards’s involvement at the Oscars. Later that night, she appeared on stage with nine other activists as rapper Common and singer Andra Day performed their Oscar-nominated song, Stand Up for Something.

“Still pinching myself! It was an honor to share the #Oscars stage,” Richards tweeted.

Other awards shows happily welcome her, including PEN Center USA’s 27th annual Literary Awards Festival. Last year, Richards also attended to introduce author Margaret Atwood of The Handmaid’s Tale and present her with an award.

And when Planned Parenthood isn’t attending awards shows, they’re hosting them – for journalists. Throughout the years, since 1978, Planned Parenthood has delivered a total of 280 awards to journalists and outlets that promote or defend its messaging.

Planned Parenthood In Fashion

Speaking of awards shows, they’re a popular hub for Planned Parenthood-pin wearers – Top Chef wasn’t the first to flaunt them.

At the Oscars, both this year and last, celebrities donned the pins as fashion statements on the red carpet. Actresses Emma Stone and Dakota Johnson attracted the most media attention (and applause) for wearing them in 2017.

That same year, at the Golden Globes, actress Lola Kirke wore a “F*** Paul Ryan” pin in support of Planned Parenthood while actress Tracee Ellis Ross wanted to donate her Golden Globes jewelry to Planned Parenthood.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. forged a partnership with Planned Parenthood, and one New York designer even placed “Planned Parenthood Saves Lives” on the runway in 2017.

In February, actress Amber Tamblyn played Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger in Comedy Central’s Drunk History “Sex” episode. And last year, Planned Parenthood made appearances in shows including FX’s American Horror Story, Freeform’s The Bold Type and CW’s Jane the Virgin.

The trend continues on reality TV. In an October preview of a Keeping Up with the Kardashians episode on E!, sisters Kim, Kourtney and Khloé visited Planned Parenthood to “learn firsthand that the nonprofit does more than just abortions.”

Last but not least, there are the late-night shows. Mila Kunis expressed support for Planned Parenthood on Conan, while Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin wore pins on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Richards herself has made appearances on shows like Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Planned Parenthood in Celebrity Social Media

It’s easy to count to 100 and beyond when it comes to celebrities that support Planned Parenthood campaigns, especially on social media.

Last year, at least 20 celebrities, from Elizabeth Banks to Charlize Theron “pinked out” to support Planned Parenthood. As Congress considered defunding the abortion giant, 30 celebrities tweeted out variations of the same pro-Planned Parenthood message to a combined 120 million followers.

Planned Parenthood is well aware of its celebrity backing. In its annual reports, Planned Parenthood has repeatedly thanked celebrities for support, from John Legend to Lena Dunham.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/5-ways-entertainment-normalizes-planned-parenthood/feed/0Marriage 101: No, Rhythm Method Isn’t Natural Family Planninghttps://www.catholicvote.org/marriage-101-no-rhythm-method-isnt-natural-family-planning/
https://www.catholicvote.org/marriage-101-no-rhythm-method-isnt-natural-family-planning/#commentsThu, 08 Mar 2018 16:05:49 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=16926Many regularly assume that Natural Family Planning, promoted by the Catholic Church, means the Rhythm method. But they couldn’t be further from the truth.

This happened again last week after Associated Press reporter David Crary reported on a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announcement outlining its “guidelines and priorities for the next round of Title X grant applications” that will compete for an estimated $260 million.

“The new HHS document makes repeated favorable mention of ‘natural family planning’ — which encompasses the rhythm method and other strategies for avoiding pregnancy without using contraceptives like the birth-control pill,” Crary wrote.

But another section of the HHS website does list the “Calendar Rhythm Method” as a “fertility awareness-based method” that falls under “natural family planning methods.” This was the section Crary must have drawn from.

The rest of the media followed suit. In reaction to the news, the media immediately used the terms Natural Family Planning and the Rhythm method interchangeably – without checking for differences.

As the senior politics reporter for the Huffington Post, Laura Bassett chimed in, “There’s a word for people who rely on the rhythm method: ‘pregnant.’”

This isn’t the first time this has happened. Despite backlash from Natural Family Planning (NFP) users, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has even repeatedlyreferred to the Rhythm method as NFP.

But the Catholic Church, perhaps the biggest proponent of NFP, says otherwise.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), “studies show that couples who follow their NFP method’s guidelines correctly, and all the time, achieve effectiveness rates of 97-99%.” The USCCB also argues that NFP is not “Rhythm,” which has been “often proved inaccurate.” Unlike the obsolete Rhythm method, NFP “take[s]account of a woman’s changing signs of fertility,” including by measuring temperatures.

And, in its instruction, the Catholic Church doesn’t stop there. It takes great pains to explain why it supports NFP instead of contraception.

The Catechism of the Catholic Churchstresses that contraception prevents “giving oneself totally to the other” which “leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love.” And Pope Paul VI writes in Humanae Vitae that contraception translates into rising marital infidelity, lower moral standards and increased perception of women as “mere instrument[s]of selfish enjoyment.”

In other words, Church doctrine teaches that actively preventing conception or “every action which … proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is “intrinsically evil.” “Periodic continence,” such as Natural Family Planning prescribes, is permitted because it “respect[s]the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom.”

That’s not something the media often report. But with more than one billion Catholics occupying the world (including the United States), let’s hope they take the time to research the differences.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/marriage-101-no-rhythm-method-isnt-natural-family-planning/feed/1LGBT Activists: It’s Time to Turn In Your Victim Cardhttps://www.catholicvote.org/lgbt-activists-its-time-to-turn-in-your-victim-card/
https://www.catholicvote.org/lgbt-activists-its-time-to-turn-in-your-victim-card/#commentsFri, 02 Mar 2018 23:42:50 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=16873The LGBT lobby have successfully worked to ensure that the public perceives them as a marginalized group, perpetually on the verge of having basic civil rights withheld from them by bigoted oppressors. And while it may be true that some individuals who identify as LGBT have experienced unfair or violent treatment from others, the LGBT movement as a whole enjoys status and power unparalleled by any other group.

As I’ve written in the past, LGBT groups receive gobs of money and support from powerful people in the media, Hollywood, academia, and even the Church. They have many friends in high places, and yet they continue to play the victim card whenever it suits them.

Take for example a recent case in Mississippi, where an LGBT group’s request to hold a “pride” parade in the main streets of Starkville was voted down by city council members.

LifeSite News reported that Starkville Pride organizer Bailey McDaniel “burst into tears” when the 4-3 vote was announced. Later, a photo of a teary McDaniel standing beside her lesbian partner was “sympathetically published far and wide along with the story of the town denying the homosexual parade.”

Following the decision, Starkville Pride promptly contacted the Human Rights Campaign, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the American Civil Liberties Union, who threatened legal action if the decision is not reversed.

The last time I checked, there aren’t any comparably responsive multi-million dollar lobbies devoted to celibate nuns, Christian business owners, small town city council members, or stay-at-home moms—all of whom are exponentially more marginalized than the LGBT camp.

These groups don’t have easy access to pricey law firms. They’re not popularly depicted in movies or on TV. They don’t have their own universally recognized flag. And yet their rights are increasingly jeopardized by the growing number of bogus cases of anti-LGBT discrimination.

Writing for LifeSite, Fr. Mark Hodges notes that “Gay Pride” events “have a history of being obscene and offensive,” often including “hypersexual dancing, people who engage in mock-sex acts, as well as naked and partially naked men and women.”

The people of Starkville aren’t trying to deprive Bailey McDaniel and her fellow activists of any basic rights. They’re not trying to prevent gays and lesbians from shopping at their stores, eating at their restaurants, or participating in other community events. They simply don’t want to be forced to affirm or be subject to behavior that they find immoral or profane.

“This is something that will bind this community together,” Starkville Pride organizer Alexandra Hendon said of the parade.

That would be a nice sentiment, if the implicit message weren’t, “And if you don’t join us we’ll sue you and shove our agenda in your face so aggressively you won’t be able to ignore it.”

The LGBT movement is not about defending civil rights. It’s more like that imperious mom who curses out the school principal after her child receives a bad report card, or the hot-head dad who warns the football coach that his son had better start in Friday’s game, or else, even though the kid is lazy and has a bad attitude.

In other words, the LGBT camp operates on a false sense of (in)justice, using damning language, media-driven shaming, and legal strong-arming to browbeat their opponents into submission.

They’re not victims, they’re bullies, and it’s time we identify them as such.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/lgbt-activists-its-time-to-turn-in-your-victim-card/feed/4Mom Starring in New Film Tells Why She Ran Out of Abortion Clinichttps://www.catholicvote.org/mom-starring-in-new-film-tells-why-she-ran-out-of-abortion-clinic/
https://www.catholicvote.org/mom-starring-in-new-film-tells-why-she-ran-out-of-abortion-clinic/#respondWed, 28 Feb 2018 19:30:25 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=16809While many in the media tend to demonize those who pray outside of abortion clinics, one mother stresses that their pro-life presence is what saved her baby boy’s life.

That baby, who she gave up for adoption many years ago, is now the 24-year-old star of an upcoming documentary, I Lived on Parker Avenue. Produced by Joie de Vivre Media, the 30-minute film follows David Scotton as a 19-year-old college student who travels from Louisiana to Indiana to meet his birth mother and father for the first time. On Saturday, David appeared on Fox & Friends, along with his birth mother and adoptive mother, to share his story.

To be released March 8, the new documentary shines a “spotlight on the beauty of adoption,” began Fox contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy. From the beginning of the film, she said, David thanked his birth mother, Melissa Coles, for refusing abortion and “instead putting him up for adoption.”

According to Melissa, she changed her mind at the very last minute.

“The reality is, David was seconds, literally, from not being here,” she reveals in the trailer. “It’s kind of bittersweet, because I wanted him.”

And in the documentary itself, she admits, “I feel so guilty,” while hiding her face in her hands. But when she asks David if he’s mad at her, he responds “never,” and adds that he has “had a great life.”

While on Fox & Friends, Melissa said that “multiple things” inspired her to choose adoption instead of abortion. But one thing changed her mind like nothing else: a pro-life witness.

“[T]he protesting outside had a lot of influence,” she said. “I remember coming in and I heard lots of different things being said, and one thing that stuck out [in]particular was, ‘Your child’s got 10 fingers and 10 toes.’”

That thought wouldn’t leave her as she waited on a doctor’s table wearing a gown, she remembered. So when the abortionist entered the room, as he was “within like seconds of touching me,” she decided “I can’t do this” and “literally” ran out of the clinic.

At Campos-Duffy’s prompting, Melissa shared a special message for women like her, with scheduled appointments at abortion clinics.

“I would beg and plead with them with all my might to please consider the alternative,” she said.

Her son, David, was in agreement.

“We want the rest of the world to see what the adoption option can do,” he said later. “If it was not for the adoption option, I would not be here today.”

And he explained why he wanted to capture his first meeting with Melissa on camera.

“First, I wanted to meet her and thank her for leaving the abortion clinic and giving me the life that I have today and giving me my mom that’s sitting next to me,” he said, referring to his adoptive mother, Susan Scotton. But he also wanted to “reclaim the beauty of adoption” by “filming a live thank you and live meeting….”

Throughout the interview, Susan held Melissa’s hand to support her.

“It was awesome,” Susan said of meeting David’s birth parents on camera. “The whole experience for me was being able to thank Melissa” for giving her and her husband “the joy of our life.”

Today, David is a second-year law student at the Louisiana State University. He regularly tells his story in talks across the country. In January, he shared it at the Family Research Council’s (FRC) “ProLifeCon.”

His parents, he said, were seniors in high school when they found out they were expecting him in 1993. Unmarried and without money, they “easily decided that the simple solution would be abortion.”

But all of that changed after “one woman from the sidewalk” reached out to Melissa as she walked into the abortion clinic.

Hearing about her unborn baby’s fingers and toes prompted her to realize that “her baby was real, that her baby was special, and that her baby was meant for someone special,” he concluded.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/mom-starring-in-new-film-tells-why-she-ran-out-of-abortion-clinic/feed/0‘Black Panther’ Star Almost Quit Acting to Find God: ‘I Fell in Love’https://www.catholicvote.org/black-panther-star-almost-quit-acting-to-find-god-i-fell-in-love/
https://www.catholicvote.org/black-panther-star-almost-quit-acting-to-find-god-i-fell-in-love/#commentsWed, 21 Feb 2018 18:00:33 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=16741Across the nation, Letitia Wright is captivating a starstruck media for her “breakout” role in Black Panther. But few are reporting how the actress almost gave it all up in her effort to seek God first.

The 24-year-old born in Guyana and raised in London plays the character Shuri, the younger teenage sister of T’Challa, or the Black Panther. But before she reached that role, she traveled on a journey of faith – something she’s never kept secret.

On February 16, the day the film hit theaters, she publicly credited God. In a tweet, she asked her followers, “Do you mind if I praise God? Just want to give thanks to God for all of the blessings and all he has done for the @theblackpanther cast & crew!”

While the media didn’t focus on her faith in Black Panther coverage, they did spotlight her talent. Both The Hollywood Reporter and Los Angeles Times showered praise over the “breakout” star. USA Today heralded her as a “new kind of Disney princess.” She “steals every scene,” according to Bustle. She should be “your new favorite actress,” added Vulture.

In Hollywood, the entertainment industry reacted similarly. After working with her on a 2015 film, director Michael Caton-Jones admitted he hadn’t seen such talent since working with a young Leonardo DiCaprio. And Black Panther director Ryan Coogler called her “the love and light” of his film.

That’s no mistake, according to Letitia.

“I was praying before I came out to L.A. to screen test and I felt really strongly in my spirit, like, this thing about love and light kept popping up,” she revealed of auditioning for Black Panther on Good Morning America, February 15. “And then Ryan kind of confirmed it” when he later used those two words to describe her.

According to Letitia, that love and light entered her when she took a 7-month break from acting to pursue her faith – a break she took even when it meant sacrificing the opportunity to star in a film alongside Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning.

“I remember God was like, to me, Give up the job,” she told Vanity Fair. “I can give you more than that; I just need you right now. Give up the job.”

“[S]he found herself in a dark place that prompted some of her Christian friends to ask her to take a chance on God,” added Erika Jarvis for VF. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, that dark place included battling depression, even refusing to eat and interact with others at some points.

“It was very, very bad and I didn’t know a way out,” she told the outlet. That is, until one friend invited her to a group Bible study.

That group helped her realize that “acting is not my god” and that her happiness didn’t depend on her career, but on her relationship with God.

“Ever since then, everything’s just been really, really positive in my life,” she told the newspaper. “I don’t feel those depressive feelings any more. I just feel so free and happy. So yeah, I won’t hide my faith, because it’s helped me so much. God has been my way out.”

In a 2016 interview with Premier Gospel, she provided more details. After attending the Toronto film festival (presumably in 2015 for her film Urban Hymn), she first felt a tug from God. But it wasn’t until after more prompting that she took her seven-month break. She later concluded God wanted her to halt her career as a sign of trust.

“I’m seeking you first,” she said her hiatus meant to God. “And I love you, and I want to know you, and I never want to put anything above you,” especially acting.

At the time, both her UK and U.S. agents expressed confusion about her decision. But, as she explained to an L.A. agent, “I need to spend time with God because, you know, this is where I need to put my heart first.”

When she decided to quit acting altogether, that’s when she heard God tell her “this is your ministry.” And so, she returned.

“Where I go, where he takes me, that’s where I need to spread the love of God,” she said. “Because people’s souls are dying. My soul was dying, and He saved me. So I can’t keep this to myself.”

“I fell in love with Jesus,” she explained, “and I’m still in love. Amen.”

The media often obsess over love stories. Let’s hope they tell this one too.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/black-panther-star-almost-quit-acting-to-find-god-i-fell-in-love/feed/2Sports Illustrated Shows Too Little of Women in #MeToo Photoshoothttps://www.catholicvote.org/sports-illustrated-shows-too-little-of-women-in-metoo-photoshoot/
https://www.catholicvote.org/sports-illustrated-shows-too-little-of-women-in-metoo-photoshoot/#respondWed, 14 Feb 2018 16:16:17 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=16673Sports Illustrated is often accused of showing too much in its explicit photoshoots. But in reality, it’s showing much too little.

Last week, Sports Illustrated (SI) began teasing a “candid, new” project called “In Her Own Words” for its 2018 Swimsuit Issue. The endeavor consisted of women modeling nude with descriptive words etched onto their skin, such as “feminist,” “mother,” and “human.”

Although the magazine conceived of the project before #MeToo went viral, veteran SI editor MJ Day insisted her work was connected to the movement.

“It’s about allowing women to exist in the world without being harassed or judged regardless of how they like to present themselves,” Day told Vanity Fair. “That’s an underlying thread that exists throughout the Swimsuit Issue.”

Or was it? On Monday, SI advertised “ONE DAY, Y’ALL!” before the issue would hit newsstands in a tweet. That tweet included a photo of a bikini-clad woman’s body – and only her body. Her face and head were cropped out

That’s not showing “her own words,” as the new initiative claims to do. That’s suggesting a woman has no words or thoughts at all. And so the 54-year-old magazine is a part of the problem it claims to fight, capturing women as objects of pleasure, rather than as independent human persons with inherent dignity and worth.

There’s also the project’s wrapping. Released on Tuesday, the issue’s cover starred model Danielle Herrington wearing a skimpy pink bikini – so small that ABC News dressed her with red ribbons in its story.

Even the media called out the magazine for its behavior. The Huffington Post’s headline accused: “Sports Illustrated Isn’t Adapting To The #MeToo Era. It’s Co-Opting It For Profit.” Outlets like NBC News highlighted “Not everyone is happy” while The New Yorkercriticized the move as “spectacularly silly.” Christian satire site Babylon Bee mockedSI as taking a “Stand Against Sexual Harassment By Putting Naked Women On Cover.”

Experts like National Center on Sexual Exploitation Executive Director Dawn Hawkins also criticized the issue that tells women and girls that “your value as a human being still ultimately hinges on your sex appeal.”

Day appeared to anticipate the backlash in her Vanity Fair interview.

“These are sexy photos,” she said. “At the end of the day, we’re always going to be sexy, no matter what is happening.”

In agreement, the project’s models, including big names like Paulina Porizkova, Sailor Brinkley Cook, Robyn Lawley, applauded the move. Even Olympic gymnast and Larry Nassar survivor Aly Raisman joined in on the photoshoot, and chose to wear the words “women do not have to be modest to be respected.”

She’s right. Women demand respect as human persons. But while the human body is thing of beauty and awe, it can also be misused, as the #MeToo movement demonstrates.

As author Christopher West writes in his explanation of St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, the “problem with pornography is not that it shows too much, but that it shows too little.”

The same is true in this instance. With this project, SI’s viewers consume women stripped naked, posing seductively with only words like “feminist” and “mother” to tell their audience that they are more than a body. That shows too little. Instead, SI could show these women living as feminists. It could show these women juggling a career and kids.

It’s not enough for these women to only wear a few words, while a picture is worth a thousand.

Even actress Angelina Jolie, who’s done her fair share of casting off clothes in film, tells her daughters not to focus solely on their bodies.

“What sets you apart is what you are willing to do for others,” she recently revealed to Elle. “Anyone can put on a dress and makeup. It’s your mind that will define you.”

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/sports-illustrated-shows-too-little-of-women-in-metoo-photoshoot/feed/0On Eagles Wings: Football Players Praise God on Social Media!https://www.catholicvote.org/on-eagles-wings-football-players-praise-god-on-social-media/
https://www.catholicvote.org/on-eagles-wings-football-players-praise-god-on-social-media/#commentsWed, 07 Feb 2018 18:10:26 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=16571While the media raced to report football players bending the knee during the national anthem, they’re overlooking the chance to celebrate a team that kneels to praise God.

On Sunday night, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots to become Super Bowl winners for the first time in history. But as national news outlets reported the big win, only a few also highlighted the quarterback’s Christian faith and his dream of becoming a pastor.

And he’s not the only player who praises God. A majority of them credit Him as their inspiration, and publicly, on Twitter.

In his Twitter bio, Eagles quarterback Nick Foles lists himself as a “believer in Jesus Christ” and uses his account to share quotes from the Bible. He tweets messages like “with God all things are possible” and “Thank you God for another day.”

And while quarterback Carson Wentz stayed off the field due to injuries, he offered God thanks shortly before the game.

“God’s writing an unbelievable story and he’s getting all the glory!” he exclaimed. After the game he added, “God is so good!!!! World Champions!!!!”

Two days after the game, Wentz turned to God after another life-changing event: He proposed to his girlfriend.

“She said YES!” he announced. “God is doing some amazing things and I can’t thank him enough!”

Acknowledging God is nothing new for Wentz. He uses Twitter to cite the Bible, give God credit, and even post pictures of himself with teammates kneeling on the field — to pray.

“My life is lived for an Audience of One,” he likes to remind his followers.

Following their win, wide receiver Torrey Smith tweeted, “God is amazing.” Left guard Stefen Wisniewski declared, “Let all the Glory be to Jesus!!” (Instead of stressing before the “big game,” Wisniewski contemplated Bible verses.)

On defense, Brandon Graham once posted a picture of the team in prayer. “Win, Lose, or Draw we make sure we give God all the glory because he is the reason we are able to go out each and everyday and play this game,” the left defensive end stressed in the caption.

“Trusting God is more than what you can see,” reads one of right defensive end Vinny Curry’s many tweets about God. “Walk by FAITH not by sight.”

“Feeling down today?” tweets cornerback Jalen Mills, “Always remember if nobody else loves you, GOD does and he has a set plan for you!” Likewise, centerback Ronald Darby urges “Don’t give up on god, cause he won’t give up on you.”

Safety Malcolm Jenkins concludes, “So grateful for where God has brought me in my life. It’s further than I had ever dreamed of as a kid.”

And those men are just the offensive and defensive starters for the team. Additional players appeared in a video produced by the team last year to address the importance of faith and their worship together, whether through chapel or Bible studies.

For these players, God isn’t important just when they’re off the field. He’s in the game — the inspiration for it. If only the media looked deeper.

It’s not because they like her. It’s not because they agree with her. Instead, they’re looking past politics to see her value as a woman – to condemn the rumor that she cheated on her husband with the president.

That rumor resurfaced Sunday night, after the Grammy Awards, when celebrities and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton read excerpts from Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury. Haley criticized the decision on Twitter.

“I have always loved the Grammys but to have artists read the Fire and Fury book killed it,” she tweeted. “Don’t ruin great music with trash. Some of us love music without the politics thrown in it.”

Many in the media concluded her indignation was related to Wolff recently insisting to HBO host Bill Maher that he was “absolutely sure” President Trump was having an extramarital affair. When he added that the audience should “read between the lines” of his book to solve the puzzle, outlets like Slate cited excerpts concerning Haley.

Even though Haley called the accusations “absolutely not true” and “disgusting” in a Politico podcast Friday, the gossip continued. But many others defended her. Chiefly, Bari Weiss of The New York Times. She called out the left’s “double-standard” on women in an opinion piece:

A prominent Republican woman is smeared. The author who does the smearing is celebrated by all the A-listers, including the most prominent Democratic woman in the country, who herself has a history of giving a pass (or worse) to men accused of sexual assault and harassment. And yet the arbiters of American culture cheer the Democrat and, in the words of the actor Don Cheadle, tell the Republican who has the gall to defend herself: ‘Sit down, girl. You’re drunk.’

But Haley not only found an ally in Weiss, but also in the feminist media.

On Monday, a Refinery29 headline warned, “Stop Saying The Women In Trump’s Administration Must Be Sleeping With Him.” Pointing to Haley, as well as allegations against White House Communications Director Hope Hicks and advisor Kellyanne Conway, writer Andrea González-Ramírez slammed the hearsay.

“These speculations are downright insulting,” she stressed, “and by going into the old-age stereotype that women can’t find success unless they sleep their way to the top, we’re completely erasing the accomplishments of these women.”

Like Weiss, González-Ramírez called out the double standard on women.

Claiming these women climbed the ranks through extramarital affairs with their boss “is demeaning,” she wrote, “and wouldn’t be acceptable in many circles if it was directed at someone such as [Democratic] Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.”

“[S]aying they are sleeping with the president without offering proof, reducing them to just a messed up stereotype,” she concluded, is a “cheap misogynistic shot.”

“Every time we suggest that an attractive, successful woman must have gained a position of power in Trump’s administration through romantic means, we undermine her,” wrote editor Jenny Hollander. “We suggest that being attractive and young … is these women’s form of currency, and more valuable than any skills or experience.”

According to Hollander, the accusations targeted Haley as a woman.

“[T]o suggest that successful women in Trump’s orbit are only there because they’re sleeping with him,” she concluded, is “sexist.” While she acknowledged her readers may not like the president or Haley (and Conway and Hicks) they should still “give them the credit they deserve.”

That same day, on Friday, Daily Beast editor Erin Gloria Ryan chimed in during CNN’s State of America – targeting Wolff.

“This story itself strikes me, as a feminist, as really, really sexist and terrible,” she said. “It’s awful that Nikki Haley has to take time out of her day, take time out of her job, to address these allegations, that were just kind of thrown out with no real evidence from the writer of a book who has kind of a questionable past history and relationship with the truth.”

While the feminist media haven’t been friendly towards women who disagree with them, this is a step in the right direction: acknowledging the worth of women, no matter their politics.

When the reports began pouring in that California parents David and Louise Turpin had been arrested for the alleged torture and imprisonment of their 13 children, I messaged my husband, the second oldest of 11 children in a Catholic homeschooled family.

“Absolutely horrific if this is true, but … I could just easily see people turning a blind eye if people like your parents were arrested on bogus charges just because of your family’s size,” I wrote to him.

Sadly, it was all very true.

Since those initial reports, the media have been closely tracking the story, releasing new updates almost daily, each one more disturbing than the previous: Children starved and shackled to beds; the Turpin parents taunting their children (aged 2 to 29) with scrumptious food and new toys that they were forbidden to touch; David and Louise leaving their kids to go engage in “kinky sexcapades” with strangers.

But the media didn’t simply report on this story—as the alleged Turpin victims deserve. Instead, the media predictably jumped on the Turpins’ “house of horrors” in order to weaponize the case against the liberties of Christian homeschooling families.

An article in TIME Magazine cited claims that the Turpins had their kids memorize long passages from the Bible, cautioning that rote memorization is “a known tool for preventing original thought, questioning or self-awareness.”

What naturally followed these reports were calls for increased “monitoring” and “oversight” of home-schooling families.

“I am extremely concerned about the lack of oversight the State of California currently has in monitoring private and home schools,” said Assemblyman Jose Medina, who represents the Turpin’s hometown of Perris, California.

“We would not say abuse is more common among home-schoolers, but when it does occur, there are fewer safeguards, less to stop it from spinning out of control,” Rachel Coleman, Executive Director of the liberal Massachusetts-based Coalition for Responsible Home Education, told Reuters.

In an op-ed for the L.A. Times, Coleman suggests forcing parental contact with “mandatory reporters” as a way to keep better tabs on homeschooling families and curb abuse.

Opponents of school choice view the Turpins as the ultimate case against home education. After all, only depraved whack-jobs with bad haircuts would prevent their children from experiencing the enrichment of the public school system. And since parents can’t be trusted to care for and educate their own kids, an expansive nanny state is the only humane option.

Progressives believe that there is not a single problem big government can’t solve: Shootings? Ban guns. Hurt feelings? Criminalize offensive speech. But what they don’t understand is that no government can solve the problem of evil. And these cases, however horrific, do not provide the grounds for restricting basic freedoms.

Homeschooling isn’t child abuse; it doesn’t “facilitate” child abuse any more than homeownership does. And to blame homeschooling for the actions of two clearly evil parents is to cast unjust and unwarranted suspicion on countless good families who choose to homeschool.

Many parents of large homeschooling families are aware of these prejudices and live in fear of having their kids taken away. These people know that few would question a headline that read, “Parents of [insert number greater than three]Lose Custody After Authorities Discover Signs of Neglect,” whether it was true or untrue.

This week is National School Choice Week, and the media’s cynical use of the Turpin case serves as timely evidence of school choice under attack in America. Now more than ever, it is important to defend the rights of parents to make their own decisions regarding their children’s education.

For Catholics, school choice is a matter of religious freedom.

As John Paul II notes in his exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, “The right of parents to choose an education in conformity with their religious faith must be absolutely guaranteed.” It’s not abuse if parents wish to opt out of a public school system that teaches middle schoolers anti-scientific propaganda under the guise of “sexual education.”

The Holy Father is explicit that “those in society who are in charge of schools must never forget that the parents have been appointed by God Himself as the first and principal educators of their children and that their right is completely inalienable.”

You hear that, nanny state? BACK OFF.

On this week’s Catholic Vote Radio Hour, National School Choice Week President Andrew Campanella joined host Stephen Herreid to discuss what’s being done in Washington and across the country to protect school choice. Listen HERE.